SpaceX's First Commercial Launch: Third Time Is a Charm

Three was the magic number that finally got SpaceX's watershed mission off the ground.

The space transport company's third attempt at getting the Falcon 9 rocket off the launching pad was a success. After two delays, Elon Musk and SpaceX employees can breathe a sigh of relief as the Falcon 9 rocket soared into the evening sky from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and into view for many Floridians. The official time of liftoff was 5:41 p.m.

Reached parking orbit. Now coasting towards equator, where the upper stage will, if all goes well, restart to raise apogee

The launch was originally scheduled over a week ago on Nov. 25. However, the rocket ran into some technical difficulties minutes before liftoff. "We observed unexpected readings with the first stage liquid oxygen system, so we decided to investigate," said a spokeswoman for SpaceX.

The second launch attempt was scheduled on Thanksgiving day but also ran into problems. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the automated launch was aborted due to a "slower than expected thrust ramp." While he said he hoped that the rocket might still have a chance by starting up a manual launch sequence, Musk ultimately called off the holiday launch.

We called manual abort. Better to be paranoid and wrong. Bringing rocket down to borescope engines ...

Any precautionary measure is a good one, according to David Todd, senior space industry analyst for FlightGlobal/Ascend. "A delay of a couple of days is not a problem," he told ABC News. "It's when things get delayed by months that it is."